Stowsentry.com - Bulldog boys cagers stroll past Ellet in playoff opener

by Steve Batko

Correspondent

The Stow-Munroe Falls boys basketball team breezed past Ellet 71-44 in a March 3 first round game at the Copley Division I district tournament.

The Bulldogs, 14-7, avoided sloppy play in the win over Ellet (1-19) after a modest first half to play in a sectional final vs. Kent Roosevelt (14-6) at Copley March 6, but results were not available as of press time.

The Rough Riders defeated Hudson 51-49 March 3 to advance.

A Stow sectional title win would result in a district semifinal confrontation March 11 at Copley (7 p.m.) against likely opponent Twinsburg (17-3), who had a first round bye.

"It will be interesting, but we just need everyone to lay it on the line every time in the postseason," said Close.

For the most part, Stow handled Ellet with the exception of parts of the first half.

Defensively, Stow had some minor lapses in which Ellet found easy entry passes into the post and gave up seven offensive rebounds in the first half to the Orangemen.

"That could have been more of a lack of blocking out more than match up issues, but overall I was pleased," said Close, whose club only had seven turnovers. "Ellet doesn't have the best record, but they have some players that presented issues that we had to contend with. I think we could have used just a little more spark."

Close mentioned match ups against Ellet's 6-foot-4 sophomore wing Ryan Walsh, who poured in 11 first half points and had 15 total.

There was also 6-6 wing David Zampelli (12 points), who at times, played guard. Early in the second half, he buried an NBA range trey to cap a 5-1 Ellet run to cut the lead to 39-27.

"[Zampelli] has range as soon as he crossed the half court," laughed Close, who also liked 6-7, 225-pound post Brandin Wilcox (four points, eight caroms and a block).

Stow responded as it took nearly five minutes for the Bulldogs to score their first field goal of the second half. When junior center Ryan Yurkschatt hit a turnaround shot in the post, Stow led 41-29 with 3:30 left in the third and never looked back.

Yurkschatt muscled for 12 first half points against Ellet's bigs and finished with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Senior guard Blake Williams canned four 3-pointers and finished with 15 points while sophomore guard Kyle Scelza sparked the team off the bench with 11 second half points and 13 overall.

Scelza also played strong defense and dished out seven assists and canned a trio of triples as Stow had nine. Senior guard Aaron Stefanov had three for nine points, plus four feeds.

Junior post Mike Garrison added 10 points while sophomore point guard David Walker added seven points, four assists and three thefts.

Seniors Kevin Podnar and Tyler Hawkins also played fine defense for the Bulldogs.

On Feb. 26, Stow wrapped up the regular season at Solon with a 56-55 win as Williams buried a game-winning trey with two seconds left.

The win gave Stow third place in the brutal River Division (6-4 record) of the Northeast Ohio Conference. Solon (12-9) ended at 5-5 in the NOC-River.

Yurkschatt pushed his way for 17 points and eight rebounds while Garrison added 14 points. Williams buried four treys in the win while Stefanov (nine points) had three. Walker had a strong floor game for Stow.

The Copley tournament always has a few surprises.

"We'll see what happens," said Close.

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